Pages

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Why I Keep Thinking About Artist Sonia Delaunay


A digital story sharing my impression of artist Sonia Delaunay: as a visual teaching artist, why I find her inspiring, both aesthetically and personally.

This topic sticks in my mind over the years, so it seemed like a rich place to start and one that would allow me to get a running start with a better chance of success on a short timeline. I wrote most of the script with pencil and paper using a writing prompt from the instructor of Coursera's "Powerful Tools for Teaching and Learning: Digital Storytelling" Course.

The images in the video include watercolors and sketches I created when attempting to put together a picture book dummy several years ago. I also included photographs of books about Sonia Delaunay, and a few photos from Wikimedia Commons.

My goal was to tell a story within a story, using personal narrative voice to engage the audience with my impressions and experience. I also wanted to closely study the step-by-step process of assembling the many parts of a digital story, so that I would be better able to guide my students in creating their own digital stories.

The most difficult part of the project for me, emotionally, was recording voice narration. I had to really struggle and overcome some self-doubt. When editing the audio, I tried to listen to my voice as if it were someone else talking. Another problem was just carving out enough time to do the very time consuming work that is required for a digital story! It did help me to just really focus on getting each step completed by the class deadline, and think of the project as if it were someone else's work, such as one of my students, so that I would not get too discouraged!

The most significant things I learned are to believe in myself, be creative with emerging technology, and work step by step to achieve a goal.